cinderella, dressed in yellow
by andthenshesaid
Summary: He falls in love when he's 15 - she doesn't. But he's a boy and she's a girl, so it's still a love story. HugoOC.


**.**

**cinderella, dressed in yellow**

**.**

**characters belong to jkr  
>prompts: yellow (which, oh yeah, i went kind of overboard on), carrot cake, fairy tales, and february<br>pairings: hugoOC, mostly, with pretty big hints of lilyteddy and a background of lucylorcan, louisOC, and jamesIIrose  
>warnings for: abundance of ocs – because its next gen like that, teenager-logic, fluff, and me writing things at ungodly times in the morning (again)<strong>

**.**

The day Hugo Weasley falls in love, he is an awkward 15 year old with messy red hair and big brown eyes and a smattering of freckles with a war-hero-probably-next-minister-of-magic mother and war-hero-auror-bad-joke-telling father and a more successful sister.

(And it's not that he hasn't been in love before, because he and Clara Longbottom had dated for six months and slept together all of two times before they broke up a month ago – if you could count the first time, and it really didn't – and he'd had the biggest crush on Victoire when he was younger, so yeah.)

He notices her from across the great hall.

She's the tiny one with the narrowed blue eyes and overgrown bangs and low ponytail, sitting at the Ravenclaw table.

She's the one who's wearing the golden yellow sundress – like those flowers that his mother plants.

(He wonders if she tastes like lemonade.)

**.**

He asks Molly about her –

But she says that there's no one in her house with the prettiest blue eyes ever who is supposed to smell like lemonade, unless he would like her to list everyone with blue eyes.

When he says yes, she kicks him in the shins, rolls her eyes, and goes back to painting her nails a shimmery pearl-pink.

**.**

So Hugo goes to Lily – who will always be fire-red-hair and supernova eyes and much more willing to help him then Molly –

And she says that Velma Nott was wearing a yellow dress that day, if that's what he could possibly mean.

**.**

He has no idea who Velma Nott is – but he recognizes the name. Because there's Octavian Nott in Lily's year (a Slytherin) and Claudia Nott is the new Astronomy professor (a Slytherin) and a Theodore Nott had been mentioned in his mother's rants about the Ministry and school and other things he could care less about (a Slytherin).

Claudia and Octavian are golden blonde hair and narrow navy eyes and he attempts to fit them into the schema of his lemon-yellow girl.

He can't.

**.**

He learns that Velma Nott is a year below him and the son of Theodore Nott and Daphne Greengrass and she's a Ravenclaw and gets good grades and sometimes he sees her and Molly talking, or maybe fighting, he's not sure. And Lily says she's a bitch, and Roxanne says she doesn't talk much and Lorcan doesn't say anything, just smiles at him like he knows more than he's letting on.

He sort of sees her as the kind of girl who sits on the side of the street selling lemonade for 25 cents a cup. He saw a girl like that once, near his grandmother's house. She had black hair and blue eyes and said her name was Adele.

Only then he actually brings himself to talk to her.

(Velma, not the lemonade girl. She was five and he was nine and it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway.)

She's not wearing yellow today, but an over large blue sweater and skinny jeans that she's drowning in and a silver necklace with a tiny diamond on it.

Of course, he is Hugo Weasley and instead of being a normal human being – or better yet, James – he sticks his foot in his mouth.

It goes something like: _Hi, I'm Hugo Weasley and I think you're really pretty, do you like lemonade? _

Molly starts snorting into her pudding; Lorcan Scamander gives him a pitying look, and Joanie Finnegan giggles.

Velma Nott kicks him in the shin.

(He wonders if that's some kind of Ravenclaw thing.)

**.**

The next day, he shows up and manages to ask if she wants to go to the next Hogsmeade weekend with him.

She rolls her eyes and hits him. _Again_.

He's seriously thinking about taking some of the food from the Ravenclaw table and testing it for some kind of potion.

**.**

A week later – she has three days to accept his Hogsmeade request, and he's asked her about nine times since that day after the day he knew she existed – he meets Claudia Nott.

She graduated about three years ago and she teaches Astronomy now, which he doesn't take, thankfully.

Claudia tells him to stop bothering her sister, and she was a Slytherin and now she can dock points from him too, so he kind of wants to just do what she says and maybe go hide in a corner or something.

Only he _really_ wants to find out if Velma tastes like lemonade or if she'll laugh at his jokes or to see her eyes up close, or maybe kiss her, just a little bit.

So he doesn't exactly tell her off – because Claudia is all golden hair and pouty lips and she sort of terrifies him – so instead he just decides not to let Claudia see him around Velma anymore.

**.**

He asks her again – she has a yellow ribbon around her ponytail, and it makes her glow or something – and she kicks him in the shin.

Only Velma seems kind of distracted – the kick didn't hurt as much as it usually does and she even missed his bruise, so he asks if she's okay.

She ignores him, but it kind of looks like she's crying, so he grabs her hand and squeezes, like he does with Rosie when she's sad.

When she walks away, she doesn't even try to kick him.

.

She shows up when he's drinking butterbeer with Lily and Lily's friend from Slytherin whose name he should know by now, but he's never been good with things like that.

(Hence him not knowing his soul mate existed until fifth year.)

She tells him that he can buy her a butterbeer, and he has to ask her to repeat it because he was too busy staring at her eyes.

She also says something about only doing this to piss Claudia off, but he ignores that part.

(He likes her glasses – they're square and kind of indie she doesn't usually wear them but she is today and also there's a dark red cardigan and a black skirt, but he still thinks she looks better in yellow.)

Still, he buys her the butterbeer and she sits in silence, glaring stonily at him, while he stares at her, thinking that she smells like lemons and sugar and water, and it's enough to make him the happiest boy in the world.

Lily and her friend – Amy? Avril? – sit and watch them, like they're some kind of crazy.

**.**

The next day she sits next him at lunch.

He tries not to grin, but he does anyway, and she sits next to him, bright red.

**.**

James and Fred and Louis show up and ask him what the hell he's doing.

He kind of ignores them, because at that exact moment Velma is sitting on the other side of the lake with Molly, wearing a pale yellow cardigan.

**.**

She doesn't play Quidditch, but neither does he, the only difference is that he actually enjoys the games and she despises them and she likes winter and snow and days so bitterly cold that it's physically painful to be outside, the sky so white it looks like a blank page on a coloring book. He likes lazy summer days, where you can sit on the side of the lake and feel warm and loved and comforted, but never actually have to do anything. He smiles more than he should, sometimes just to over compensate when other people _aren't _smiling and his parents fight a lot, but they do love each other. She doesn't talk about her parents, but he knows her mother is blonde and tiny and her father is a genius of some sort, and her brother can play the piano. He chews on ice after he's finished drinking, and she calls it the most annoying thing ever done on the planet, but she bites her lip and looks down and doesn't talk when she's nervous and she doesn't smoke but her sister does and she likes the way the smoke looks, so maybe she'll try once –

He talks to her mostly, in long, thick rambling sentences that don't makes much sense, and it doesn't always make all that much sense, and she doesn't always seem to be listening, but sometimes she'll say something truly nice or perfect or amazing, or maybe just something about her life, and he'll listen to them all and collect them the way Rosie does with coins or Lou does with women, and he'll be happy.

**.**

His grandmother (the Weasley one) sends him a letter asking about this _girlfriend that Fred has been telling me so much about _and the first thought that goes through his brain is that _of course Fred is the_ _only Weasley cousin to actually write to their grandmother_ and the next is that it's near Christmas and he should tell her how good Velma looks in yellow.

So he does.

**.**

On Christmas, he gets a letter from her.

(He's sent her about four so far, and a Christmas present too.)

It goes something like: _Merry Christmas. Why did your grandmother send me a sweater?_ Except it has a couple more expletives in it and it's written in little girl handwriting with hearts on the i's.

He doesn't hear from her after that, but when he shows up for school she's wearing the yellow sweater that his grandmother made.

**.**

For Valentine's Day, he shows up outside the Ravenclaw dorms with yellow flowers and a slice of carrot cake, because it's her favorite.

She rolls her eyes, but lets him hold her hand on the way to breakfast.

**.**

Sometime in the beginning of March, he gets a wicked cold and passes out during the middle of Care of Magical Creatures, managing to upend a bucket of flobberworms on Hagrid and get a nasty cut on his head, along with the typical dizziness and spinning and upset stomachs and misery that always accompany colds.

And he blames James for dumping a bucket of snow down his shirt, but Lily insists that that's not how people get colds anyway, but it's not like it matters because he somehow ends up in the hospital with Rosie on the floor next to him, a Charms textbook in her hand – because Rosie will always be his big sister, and they'll always take care of each other because that's what they _do_, it just won't be all lovey-dovey and chock full of hugs or whatever. Pomfrey – who must be nearing 300 now, or some other equally unrealistic number, but she has wrinkles, so to a 15 year old she is old – has just dropped off a potion that she promises will have him up and running by the morning, and he is reading a letter from his mum, filled with paragraphs about work and whatever stupid thing his father has done recently and questions about his schoolwork.

Velma storms in at some point, glaring angrily.

"Why are you so stupid?"

And then Rose kind of sigh-grins and Hugo is just happy Velma is there, even though that potion that Pomfrey gave him is making everything seem a bit spinny and drowsy and he wonders – _is Velma's hair really made out of jingle bells and what happened to those scrappy boots she was always wearing, because he doesn't remember the duck feet at all _–

(Velma stays the entire night, insulting him under her breath and brushing messy hair away from his face as he tosses and turns.)

**.**

She's a year below him, so they never have class together, but some day's he'll get out of Defense early because Teddy is the teacher now and all Lily has to do is smile and bat her eyes and stare pointedly at his wedding ring – it's moments like that when Hugo will know for a fact that Lily is some kind of evil incarnate – and he'll start choking and flushing and Hugo will be able to slip out and sneak down to the History of Magic Classroom and Binn's won't notice when he slips in to sit next to Velma.

"Hi." He says today, and she turns around to glare at him.

There's a piece of parchment on her desk with half a page of notes on it, but the bottom half of the page is covered in doodles and notes and scratches.

"I'm bored."

"Well, it's History of Magic. I don't know if anyone has ever been actually entertained in here."

Velma makes some sort of snort-giggle noise that is probably the most adorable, endearing noise he's ever heard in his entire life.

**.**

"I'm _not_ going to miss you." Velma says.

Hugo grins.

**.**

He doesn't see her all summer.

Rosie sometimes rolls her eyes – but she's going into seventh year, so he doesn't see her so much, because she's locked herself in her room to study for NEWTSs and avoid the stream of letters coming from Scorpius Malfoy and visits from James – and so Hugo writes Velma letters anyway, except sometimes he forgets, but he still tries.

He gets two in return.

One is an actual letter, spanning about half a page, starting with _Weasley_ and ending with _I hope you're not stupid enough to fall off a broom and die, Velma _and touching up on topics such as Claudia being a slut and Octavian being a bigger slut and OWLs for her next year and the Malfoy's and Zabini's stopping by and Scorpius wanting to know why Rose hasn't been answering his letters and also that she misses carrot cake, because her mother can't cook. Of course, it's Velma, so there are more expletives and she manages to insult him about twice per line, but he still lets out a whoop of triumph when he receives it, similar to the sound his father makes when the Cannons actually beat someone.

He writes her back two pages, and a slice of carrot cake wrapped in a yellow napkin, and starts with _Velma_ and ends with _miss you, Hugo_.

He doesn't get anything for two months, and when he does it's his the day after his birthday. The note is attached to a large seashell, and says something along the lines of: _Happy Birthday, idiot. I found this on the beach. Sorry it's a bit late, but you can deal, because you were probably too busy with all the gingers yesterday, anyway – Velma _

In a quick postscript, she thanks him for the cake.

He thinks it's the best day-after-his-birthday _ever_, just a little bit.

**.**

When Hugo gets to the platform, he doesn't see her.

This might be because he's grown about a foot, and she's stayed the same, still barely clearing five feet. It also might be something about the way the platform is crowded, but still. He doesn't see her as Lysander and Lorcan tackle Lucy like it's been years instead of a week or two, he doesn't see her as James and Rose fight for the _nth_ time – this time about owls or possibly OWLs, he's not sure – he doesn't see her as his mum kisses him on the cheek goodbye and he doesn't see her as he boards the train.

He's slightly nervous now, because he _missed_ her.

(And he really hopes she missed him.)

And so – as any sixteen year old in love – he goes through every compartment trying to find her – her and her navy eyes and scowl-smile and pretty face. And, okay, so there are a few incidents dealing with about six couples making out – including Louis and some blonde girl, and Lysander and Molly – and seven hexes aimed in his direction and a trio of angry Hufflepuffs – he finds her.

She's sitting in a compartment with Lily Potter and Scorpius Malfoy and Albus and Octavian Nott, and he gives a few seconds to thank fucking god that Claudia isn't there.

Lily gives him a quick smile. Scorpius doesn't acknowledge his existence. Albus grins. Octavian smirks and shoves Velma.

Velma, who looks at him, glares quickly, and asks – or really, more like orders – him to get her some chocolate frogs from the snack cart.

He does, and it's not really because he's a "whipped little fucker" as Lysander Scamander insinuates. It's because he missed her and he's pretty sure she missed him, and sometimes when she's eating chocolate she smiles and he sits next to her and smells like lemonade and he likes it when she smiles.

So… Yeah.

**.**

He tells her she looks prettiest in yellow.

She blushes a horrible shade of red and glares death at him, and tugs the jacket she stole from his trunk tighter around his body.

**.**

He remembers that he was talking to Emmy Taylor.

Emmy was in his year, and in his house, only she was muggleborn and rubbish in Herbology and Potions and her mum was some sort of author and her dad was dead and she had blonde hair that was leaning more towards brown and good taste in music and these tight, pinchy looking shoes.

She was chattering on about a band they both liked, and Hugo was _mostly_ paying attention.

Then, quite suddenly (but really just after Emmy leaned a bit closer and rubbed certain parts of her anatomy against his arm, right after she'd asked if he would enjoy going with her to a concert they were having in some pub, yeah, right then) Velma tumbles into the Gryffindor common room.

And she's not really supposed to be there, but she's _Velma_ and Hugo isn't going to stop her, so he gave her the password to use if there was an emergency, like a mass murderer hovering over her with a knife or a spider. Not that he would be much help in the latter situation, because spiders are _damn_ scary. Mostly she just uses it to wake him up in the middle of the night because she can't sleep.

Anyway.

Velma sort of straightens up and blinks and her gaze locks in – and, really, why him, because Rosie is screaming at the fireplace and Lorcan appears to be using his tongue to inspect Lucy's face and Patrick Thomas is fucking _purple_ – on him and Emmy and then she's blinking, really fast, like she's trying to un-see whatever is going on, and he looks down at Emmy for just a second. When he looks back up Dominique is standing right where Velma used to be and Hugo decides that he'd probably just imagined her and that shattered look that had been on her face.

**.**

She ignores him for the next two days, and he is _oh so_ confused.

**.**

Later, when he's sitting at the breakfast table making shapes with his oatmeal, she comes in.

He doesn't notice at first, not until she's walking up to the Gryffindor table and tugging on his sleeve and pressing their lips together, so hard that his teeth clack against hers.

(He knows that if this were one of those paperback romance novels that Lily liked to pretend she doesn't read, then this would be the moment where everything in life would be okay and nothing else would happen after, they would just _be_ – like some kind of creature with a name like Velmgo or Huga or WeasNot, but instead it's Hugo Weasley's life, so he's left with a warm feeling in his stomach and oatmeal on his chin.)

**.**

See, some days she sits with him and he always makes sure she gets the kind of carrot cake she likes and remembers that she doesn't like to eat the vegetable stew and that if he chews with his mouth open, she will hit him.

On other days, she sits at the Ravenclaw table with Molly and Lorcan and some others and he stares at her for the entirety of the meal.

He asks her, finally in January of 6th year, if she'd like to go on a real date, because they're basically together and all.

She turns bright red, kicks him and runs away.

**.**

The next day, she shows up outside the common room in a yellow dress, tapping her foot impatiently.

She asks him if he forgot about their stupid date and then calls him stupid, and some part of his brain would like to point out how redundant that was.

Instead Hugo stutters for a little bit before Dom takes pity on him and shows him a tunnel to get to Honeydukes.

He and Velma share fizzing whizbees and throw the nasty flavors of Bertie Bott's Beans out an open window and he manages to get some butterbeer and Velma tells him that he's not a complete idiot.

He sure as hell grins like one, though.

**.**

Okay, so Hugo doesn't exactly know why he and Velma are whatever they are.

She spends about half the time hitting him and never really says anything nice and she has a horrible blush, and he can be a bit dense and doesn't always like to talk, and he probably lets her boss him around too much –

But he likes the way her face lights up when she has a packet of dark chocolate and some tea and, obviously, the way she looks in yellow and the way when she actually smiles his heart twists in this way that isn't even close to painful.

Once, when they're laying out in the sun – she's rereading his rather horrible Potions essay and he's attempting to charm the plant she mangled in Herbology to something actually resembling a plant instead of a pile of brown dust, and the sun is shining just right and Lily and Molly aren't around to scream at him – and he asks her why she likes him.

She tells him she doesn't, and he doesn't catch it quite fast enough, because something flickers in her eyes.

Velma grabs his hand and squeezes just once and whispers something.

He has the words _but I guess you are kind of my best friend anyway_ running in his head the entire day.

**.**

Claudia shows up to yell at him, sometime in November, Octavian trailing lazily behind.

And while Claudia is loud and authoritative and terrifying and pretty, and Velma is tiny and quiet and angry and violent and the most beautiful thing he's ever seen in his entire life, Octavian falls somewhere in the middle – sarcastic and genius and a Slytherin and Lily's friend and cunning and pretty, in some kind of manly way.

"You'd better not be actually dating my sister." Claudia hisses.

"I wouldn't – I mean… I don't really know?"

It seems to make Claudia even angrier and she starts talking very quickly about _respect_ and _baby sister_ and _fucking playboy Weasley's _and _intentions_ and Octavian is staring at him with calculating eyes.

"What are you doing to Weasley?" A voice interrupts, and he recognizes Velma. She's in a yellow skirt and a cream sweater and boots so ugly they have to be adorable, and her hair is falling in her face and she's like a knight in shining armor.

"Nothing." Octavian mutters. Claudia gives a smile that's all teeth.

"No." Velma says, narrowing her eyes at her siblings. "Don't do that weird protective thing to Weasley. It's not like we're – we're not anything, anyway. So… Just don't."

She grabs his arm and tugs him away – and obviously, as she says later, not because they're holding hands or whatever, but just because she thought he was too stupid to walk away on his own.

**.**

For Christmas in seventh year, he sends her some cake and some tea and a yellow scarf that Rose helped him pick out.

There's a note attached to it that says something like: _Merry Christmas, hope you have a great time and enjoy the present_. Except he might have accidentally added _i love you_ to the end.

He's a stupid 17 year old kid, and she's a pretty girl, that's all.

**.**

They get back after break – him and his dwindling crowd of Weasley's – because James and Rosie moved off to Paris, and he knows whats going on there – because they are James and Rose and they'll always be James and Rose like that, a degree separate from the rest of them and Dom ran off to play Quidditch in Belarus and sends him letters written in some kind of code and Lou is working at the prophet, falling in love with secretaries and girls who serve coffee, instead of people like astronomy professors – Fred is still there, though he's graduated, tugging Roxy onto the train. Fred will always be there, Hugo thinks. A constant in a world of ever-changing redheads.

Lily skips off to go find her friends.

His mother kisses him on the cheek and his father claps him on the back and he looks for the girl who never returned his letters, not once.

He finds her brother instead.

Octavian Nott, rolling his eyes and smirking and looking like he'd rather be anywhere else than standing on a train station with Hugo Weasley.

"Velma spent all of break hiding in her room – having a bloody mental breakdown or something. Figured it has something to do with you. It always does."

"I love her." Hugo says back and Octavian looks at him like he's turned pink and suddenly sprouted elf ears, or perhaps the same way his father looks at Mrs. Lovegood when she babbles about nargles and crumple horned something's.

"… Did you tell her that?"

"Oh – uh… Yeah. I think. Yes."

Octavian sighs and says something about _emotionally constipated sisters_ and _idiotic, childish Weasley's_.

**.**

Hugo spends the entire sorting feast – _boring, the Finnegan son getting sorted into Gryffindor, boring, pudding, even more boring _– staring at Velma.

The only thing is she's staring back – sort of. She'll look up, a lot, see him staring, blush bright red in that adorable way that she always did, and narrow her eyes and look intently at whatever was on her plate.

After they all eat, he catches up with her in a stairwell – the one by the Hufflepuff dormitory.

"Hi." He says.

She says it back.

"I wrote you a letter." He says, and he think he sounds a bit like a scared little ten year old who wrote his sister three pages of his life the day after she left and was genuinely surprised when she didn't respond the second the owl had flown past the street sign.

She looks at his face, just for a second, before staring at her feet.

"I love you." He says – and he repeats it, for good measure.

Velma stands on her tiptoes and presses her lips softly to his. She doesn't taste like anything, just warm and tea and _her_.

"I don't _not_ love you."

It's enough.

**.**

She visits during winter break – tumbling through the floo with all the grace of six elephants on roller skates, but he's too excited to notice.

She gives him a small, messily wrapped present.

He managed to find a bracelet in his grandmother – the muggles one's – things. It's gold, with some sort of yellow-orange-citrine-topaz-whatever dangling from it and he likes it.

(She gives him a little figurine – it's a phoenix and it rises from the ashes again and again, almost like a metaphor or something.)

His mother takes an instant dislike to her – nearly the same as his dad did to Scorpius, back when he and Rose were dating.

He remembers, because he says, "Oh, um. Velma – this is my mum."

And Velma says "nice to meet you," in this vaguely polite sort of way.

Velma doesn't seem to like his mum much either, but she knows enough about Hugo not to say anything bad about his mum – that's the kind of common courtesy that all people should use in their everyday lifestyles anyway, because yeah, his mum can be a bit loud and demanding and sometimes she forgets what she's doing and stays up for three nights in a row with quill bits in her hair and ink stained fingertips, just to get some bill passed or whatever – but that's _family_.

Velma stays for dinner.

His father adores her.

**.**

"Idiot." She murmurs, and he sits down next to her.

Its winter and they're by the lake. Lily is on the other side – he can see her, cracking the ice with her wand and diving under like the world is ending.

He kisses her – for no reason other than that he can – and she kisses back.

It's February and he wants to learn how to stop time.

**.**

"Just _what_ exactly is going on with you and Octavian's sister?"

"You know, you weren't this upset when Lou slept with –"

"That's different! I _liked _Claudia." Lily hissed and Hugo listened, in what he hoped seemed like a polite way.

Though, really, he doesn't understand what Lily-and-the-rest-of-his-family despises so much about Velma.

She's small and, yeah, she can be a bit abrasive – if that's the right word – but Lily was best friends with her brother and no one had too much of a problem with Louis fooling around with Claudia and she was a _teacher_. Besides, he thought they were all accepting and everything, what with the whole Dominique drama and Albus and Scorpius probably being in love with each other and Lily being an effing Slytherin and all.

"Lils. I love her. I want to spend the rest of my life with her."

She rolls her eyes. "You're 17."

"So are you – and you can run off to random places and stay out all night in muggle clubs and break up your god brother's _marriage_ – why can't I be in love?"

And yeah, he crossed a line there.

(But even blind people can see the way Teddy – sorry, Professor Lupin – watches Lily as she flips her dark red hair around and blinks those supernova eyes.)

**.**

Teddy divorces Vic and James and Rose comes back for Christmas break and Lily attempts not to call Velma a _frigid bitch _when they're in the same room and Rosie tells him he's welcome to visit Paris anytime and Lucy announces that she's pregnant and _yeah_ it's Lorcan's and –

Life moves on, in other words.

Hugo, a seventh year at Hogwarts, in love with Velma, Velma _slowly_ falling in love with him, Hugo is happy, he really is.

Only – happiness can't last forever and somehow seventh is synonymous with last, and he's leaving. Leaving to work at Department of International Magical Cooperation – because he likes languages and people and his uncle Percy got him a job and, yeah, that's life.

So he graduates and there's a big ceremony and a garden party after at his grandmothers and she's wearing one of his sweaters and a scarf even though it's June and too hot for it.

"You're leaving."

"Just Hogwarts, Velma. It's not like I'm going to a different country."

She's sitting on the ground, still wearing that ridiculous too-hot-for-this-weather outfit. He slides down next to her.

"You're not going to come back." And now she's glaring at him and she sounds a bit congested and it's a lot bit heartbreaking.

He's shaking his head, whispering comforting nothings into her ears –

"You're not going to come back and you're going to meet some tall girl whose pretty and blonde and nice and you're going to fall in love with her and…" She breaks off into sobs them, and he hugs her tight to him.

"That's just not possible. Never. Velma – I will always be in love with you. _Always_."

She cries even harder at that.

"And I'm coming back, and I'll write you all the time, and I'll come visit too, and – god, Velma – I'm just going to always love you. You and no one else."

She looks at him, eyes all red and puffy and not all that attractive, probably, to anyone who's not him.

"I love you too."

And then she's drying her tears and hugging him back and calling him things like _idiot _and _bastard_ and he's just smiling – like always, when he's with her – and holding her hand, because she _loves_ him back.

**.**

He likes working at DIMC.

One of his mates from school – Haymitch McLaggen – works there too, and Amelie Lewallen is from Beaxbutons and is always up for coffee breaks and his uncle isn't that horrid of a boss – he reminds Hugo of Rosie doing homework whenever he's working. And it's not like it's a dream job, but he's only about 19 and he has _years _to figure out what he wants to do.

Velma drops by, one weekend in May.

Easter holidays, apparently – straight from school, flooed over to the Ministry without even taking the train. She's wearing a blue kilt and a dark grey cloak – but that bracelet that he gave her is glinting on her wrist and when he gets back from a meeting with Percy and some Germans and there she is, sitting on his desk.

Collin van Buren winks at him.

Hugo attempts to ignore it – and it's made all the more easily when Velma kisses him hello.

He leaves work early – Haymitch promises to cover for him – and they go out to lunch at some pub. They talk about school and work and family and everything, and the conversation doesn't let up for a second – his eyes don't leave her face and she drinks from his mug of butterbeer even though there's a perfectly good cup of it sitting right in front of her.

**.**

On a muggy Tuesday in June, Velma graduates from her seventh year at Hogwarts. Hugo attends the ceremony and cheers – loudest for her, though he does let out a few whoops when Roxy and Molly step on the stage too.

After, when the inky-black hats are still floating around in the air due to some spell and whatnot and McGonagall has finally found the counter curse for whatever turned her robes plaid, Hugo Weasley gets down on one knee and pulls out a ring.

She blushes – horribly – and mutters an insult under her breath, but a second later, she's saying yes and a brilliant smile is breaking across both their faces.

(And yeah, they're young, and Ron is moaning about his children's choice in dating partners and her dad has a pinched look to his face and he can hear his grandmother screaming things like _too young _and _this is not wartime_ in the background, but he can't remember a time when he hasn't loved her and he doesn't want to imagine one either.)

**.**

They get married.

She wears a white dress and a yellow ribbon and they both smile and Hugo falls in love all over again.

**.**

**please don't favorite without reviewing.**

**.**


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